


The Greatest Show: Noah's Ark Circus

by PandoraButler



Series: Rewritten Movies [2]
Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Book of Circus, F/M, Grelliam, M/M, SebaCiel - Freeform, The Greatest Showman, circus names, it's great, vintaker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 18:38:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13172832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandoraButler/pseuds/PandoraButler
Summary: Vincent Phantomhive decides to round up a collection of mistreated misfits and form a show; the greatest show.





	The Greatest Show: Noah's Ark Circus

**Author's Note:**

> This is heavily inspired by the movie: The Greatest Showman. Since, like the nerd I am, I couldn't watch that movie without thinking of Book of Circus. So, now we're here. Enjoy. (or hate)

Vincent sat at his makeshift desk staring at the long line of individuals. His advertisements in the paper, and the posters he'd hung around town, had worked! People of all sorts had come to his (recently purchased) building! His dream was bearing fruit. In no time at all he'd be selling tickets and creating a place for the misfits. Most importantly: he'd be making money. 

"So, what do you do?" Vincent asked. 

"I can juggle and do slight of hand tricks," the ginger with an artificial limb replied.

"Magic? Great!" Vincent smiled and pointed to his partner in crime, Angelina, for her to write him on the 'ok' list. The next individual walked up to the desk.

"I can tame animals," the woman said. 

"But can you tame tigers?" Vincent asked.

"I can tame anything," she replied, "I have a way with cats especially."

"Fantastic!" he pointed to Angelina again and the next individual walked up.

"I, uh, I can sing?" this person's hair was a bright shade of red and incredibly long. Vincent hadn't seen another person with hair like Angelina's before. He smiled. The male before him blushed and looked at the ground. He scratched his arm nervously. 

Vincent stood up and grabbed his hands, "Would you hate to wear dresses? I don't think there is an outfit under the sun that would do you justice if it didn't at  _least_  have a skirt. You're too beautiful for pants! Ah, but, please don't be offended by my asking..."

"No offense taken, I'd actually prefer that," he smiled to reveal his abnormally sharp teeth. Vincent smiled back and, once again, pointed to Angelina. The woman shook her head but added him to the list. She always knew Vincent was crazy, but now he just seemed insane.

Vincent continued to converse with the people waiting in his long line. He didn't seem to turn many of them away. He had so many performers to advertise now! So many ideas burst through his head! The only problem he had now was getting it all to work smoothly. His new crew followed his every order to get his (recently bought) ex-museum fixed up and turned into a place for show business. No act was a bad act! No individual too weird or too abnormal! Everyone was welcome. And then, the night of their first show came to be.

"Places everyone!" Vincent clapped his hands and gave out orders. This was their first night! It had to be perfect! "Wendy and Peter, be careful out there! Black and Suit, if you two get into a fight, I'm finishing it! Doll and Smile, you're looking fantastic! Dagger, I know you're tempted, but please don't throw knives at Black again." Vincent tried his best to calm everyone's nerves but he knew that they'd be freaking out until their first performance was over. Vincent stopped walking when he reached Grell. He paused and kissed Grell's hand, "I don't care what anyone tells you, you're the most beautiful creature anyone will ever meet, Madame Red." Grell smiled in response.

Vincent grabbed his cane and top hat and left to greet the crowd. The people silenced and watched. They didn't know what to expect but they certainly couldn't have expected what they were about to see.

"Welcome one, welcome all, I'm about to show you the greatest show you've ever seen!" He bowed to the crowd and outstretched his hand to the people entering the ring one by one. Each act gave a glimpse of what they'd do later. Vincent introduced them and the show continued. The crowd laughed when they needed to, cried when the needed to, and were shocked when they needed to be. Everything was just as Vincent had planned it; however, he sensed it would not remain that way for long. 

The next morning Angelina walked into his office and slammed a newspaper down on his desk, "What are you going to do about this?" she asked. There was an article written by a famous critic: Diedrich. It was not in favor of Vincent's new business, to say the least. 

"'The last time a group of animals came together like this, God flooded Earth. Nothing good can come of Vincent Phantomhive's circus.'" Vincent read aloud. He laughed, it wasn't a bad name for his new venture. "Post an ad saying 'half off ticket prices to anyone who brings this paper in.' Oh, and, get Joker to paint 'Noah's Ark Circus' on the side of the building. I quite like the sound of it, don't you?" Angelina shook her head in disbelief. Was Vincent an idiot? Or was he actually just insane? No one would ever know.

Vincent examined the rest of the paper when Angelina left. He jumped up, grabbed his coat, and left. He ran to the bar mentioned in a different article. There was a famous male opera singer there that had retired due to an accident. Vincent wasn't about to let that go to waste. Maybe some class would lead the ridiculous rich people to stop messing with his plans. No, probably not, because he'd ruin this singer's image for the good of his cause. 

When Vincent arrived, it didn't take him long to realize which one was the retired singer. There was only one person with a hideous scar across their face. Vincent grinned and sat next to him, since no one else would, and bought him a drink.

"If you've come to laugh at me, like the rest of 'em, I'd prefer if you cut to the chase and left me alone," the ex-singer said without making eye contact. He accepted the drink but refused to acknowledge Vincent's existence.

"My name is Vincent Phantomhive," he said, "I'm here to recruit you!"

"I've heard about you, and I'm not interested in being one of your showpieces. I'm not a singer anymore. I don't plan to be one in the future. There isn't going to be anything productive about having me participate in your little show."

"I beg to differ," Vincent replied. "There is nothing productive about you sitting here and drinking your life away. Why not perform for me? It couldn't hurt anything. You'd be doing something you love and getting back on stage. What is so wrong with that?"

"In case you haven't noticed, I don't exactly fit the part of a singer anymore," he looked towards Vincent so that his scar was fully visible to him. His yellow-green eyes glowed with a twinge of rage. Vincent wasn't the least bit put off by his appearance. In fact, he found it oddly satisfying.

"Looks have nothing to do with your talent," Vincent smiled. "If you're so ashamed of the way you look, and I do think you look quite handsome, we can fix that by making you look far worse!" Vincent ran his hand through the ex-singer's hair so that his fringe fell in front of his face. There was an aura of mystery about him now, since only half of his scar was visible. The man laughed at Vincent. 

"You certainly have a weird way of thinking," he said. "Have you even heard me sing?"

"I don't need to hear you sing, the rest of the world already knows how good you are. Besides, I already have a good singer. If you're singing and appearance is terrible, Madame Red will just appear to be that much better. It works either way, don't you think?" Vincent smiled. "So, what do you say? Will you join me?"

"Fine, I'll join you."

"I look forward to your performance, Undertaker."

"Undertaker?"

"There are only a few things that disgust or mystify people: death and the unknown," Vincent explained. "I can't think of a better name for you, an individual that both disgusts and mystifies." 

Diedrich, the critic, only continued to write bad reviews of the Noah's Arc Circus, and yet, his reviews only brought more and more individuals to see the show. Some crowds were good, while other crowds were bad, but business continued to boom. Rachel, Vincent's fiancee, hated it all. She wanted Vincent to stop dreaming already and start making a family, a  _real_  family. She didn't realize that the circus  _was_  Vincent's family and she didn't care either.

"Vincent," Rachel said, "when are you going to stop this nonsense? And come home?" she asked while she followed him around in the ex-museum. 

"What nonsense?" Vincent replied. He wasn't giving her his full attention, he never had. Their engagement no longer appealed to him. Rachel was much too snobby for his tastes after she revealed her true nature to him.

"This nonsense! The circus! When are you going to stop caring so much about it and marry me?" Rachel asked. Vincent stopped walking immediately and turned around to face her.

"If you can't recognize the true beauty in what I'm doing here," he gestured to all of the people preparing for the next show, "then maybe you're the one who needs to stop the nonsense." Rachel couldn't believe her ears. After all these years, was Vincent actually breaking off their engagement? He couldn't do that! That was preposterous! 

Rachel, not believing that to be the true reality of the situation, decided that maybe if the circus was destroyed Vincent would come back to his senses. Yes, that has to work! Rachel grabbed the nearest lantern and traveled to the most remote location of the museum. She smashed the lantern on the floor and made her escape. The fire soon traveled and everyone screamed in the chaos of it all. People were running around, trying to save what they could, and leaving to save themselves from the flames. The fire spread too quickly for the building to be saved. Vincent stood, outside his creation, staring at it as it burn to the ground. 

"Where's Smile?!" Black asked. The blue-haired boy wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Is he still inside?" Suit questioned. 

"Oh! That poor boy!" Grell gasped and fainted at the shock of everything that was happening around him. Suit caught him before he fell to the ground though.

Vincent ran into the flaming building to search for Smile. He called out his name and coughed due to the smoke. The boy wasn't responding; that could only mean something terrible had happened. "Smile?! Smile! Are you there? Where are you? Please answer me!" Vincent yelled over the crackling of the flames. A small voice whispered. It was nearby, thank goodness, but would Vincent get there in time? The flames were already beginning to burn his skin. Vincent tried his best to remove the fallen beam and free Smile. It was difficult, but he managed it. He picked up the boy and carried him out to safety. Black took him from Vincent and ran him to the nearest medical team. Vincent smiled before passing out. At least Smile was safe, that's all that mattered at this point, since the rest of his circus was already destroyed.

When Vincent woke up he was staring at the ceiling to a hospital. Undertaker and Angelina were by his side, waiting for him to wake up. When Angelina realized he'd opened his eyes, she slapped him.

"How dare you go into a flaming building like that?! Don't you have any concern for your own life?!" she scolded. "Do you realize how worried we all were?"

"Now, now," Undertaker tried to calm her, "he has just woken up." 

Vincent's cheek burned like the rest of his body. He felt like a roasted marshmallow. "What am I going to do about the circus?" he questioned. Angelina and Undertaker both looked at each other before looking to him again. Even in his current condition he was thinking about other things. This guy truly was crazy.

"Go back to sleep, for now," Undertaker kissed Vincent's forehead, "we'll figure out something later." Vincent closed his eyes, reluctantly, and fell into a light sleep. 

A few days later, when the hospital realized he wasn't dying, he was released. The first thing he did was return to the building that had been destroyed. The remains of what was were still there. Not much of it had been removed. Vincent stared at the pile of trash that had previously been his circus. His mind, that had previously created new ideas, seemed to be broken. He didn't know what to do anymore. Smile and Doll grabbed a hand on either side of Vincent. They both looked up at him and tried to provide comfort.

"We're still here," Smile said, "so the circus can be rebuilt."

"I don't have the money for a new building," Vincent replied.

"Who says we need a building?" Undertaker snickered.

"All we need is a place to do our show," Angelina smiled, "and lucky for you, I know you too well. I've been saving money in case something like this happened. We can use my inherited land a few blocks away. Nothing is built there, it's just an empty lot, so all we need is a giant tent and we're ready for business."

Vincent hugged Angelina and gave Undertaker a kiss. "I honestly don't know what I'd do without you two."

"You'd be a lost cause without us," Angelina said.

"He's a lost cause either way," Undertaker laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> When I finished it, I was so happy, that I gave up on trying to edit it. I'm sorry if it turned out to be total trash. Maybe one of these days I'll go back and make it slightly better trash.


End file.
